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macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: former penn state assistant football coach jerry sandusky will spend at least 30 years in prison for repeated and sustained sexual abuse of young boys. good evening. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the newshour tonight, we get the latest on the sentence that guarantees sandusky will spend the rest of his life behind bars. >> woodruff: then, jeffrey brown examines charges that two chinese companies-- among the largest telecom equipment makers in the world-- are a threat to u.s. security. >> ifill: we update the presidential race as both candidates compete in battleground states, and we preview the "choice 2012," airing tonight on froline. >> woodruff: from our climate change series, hari sreenivasan reports on urban areas heating up, and one city's efforts to cool down. >> ifill: and ray suarez has the story of a mexican drug lord killed in a gunfight, and his corpse stolen from the funeral home. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160

years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the former football coach who plunged penn state university into scandal by his sexual abuse of young boys over many years was sentenced today. the judge called his crime a "story of betrayal."

jerry sandusky wore a red jail jump suit and a smile as he entered the center county courthouse this morning, less than two hours later, the smile was gone after the 68-year-old learned he will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. lead prosecutor. >> i believe that the sentence that the court imposed today was a wise and proper one and that it reflectedded the seriousness of the defendant's crimes. the harm he caused and the need to remove him from society. >> woodruff: sandusky was convicted three months ago on 45 counts of sexually abusing ten young boys over a 15-year period. in an audio statement that aird monday on a penn state student radio station, he again insisted he is innocent. >> they can take away my life. they can make me out as a monster. they can treat me as a monster, but they can't take away my heart. in my heart i know i did not do these alleged disgusting acts. >> woodruff: going further he blamed the victims.

today in court sandusky expandd on that theme for some 15 minutes, but judge john cleland said his claims of a conspiracy were unbelievable and the prosecutor dismissed sandusky's words as ridiculous. >> he displayed deviance, narcissism, a lack of feeling for the pain he causedded others and to the end an unwillingness to accept responsibility. in fact, his statement today was a master piece of banal self-delusion, completely untethered from reality. >> woodruff: still defense attorney insisted sandusky was the victim of a rush to judgme judgment. >> today it may be his rights and tomorrow it may be your rights. you're going to say wait a minute i need more times to do this. i have a defense i'm innocent. but everybody thinks you're guilty so why the heck waste time. let's just get this over with. >> woodruff: sandusky plans to

appeal. that's not the end of the scandal that shook penn state. two college administrators gary shultz and tim curly, face trial on charges of failing to report sandusky to the police and lying to a grand jury. long-time head football coach joe paterno was fired last november and died in january of lung cancer. the n.c.a.a. later imposed severe sanctions on the school's football program. for more on all this we turn to a man who has been covering the story for the associated press. he was in the courtroom today. mark, thank you for joining us. we know that jerry sandusky spoke before the sentence was handed down. what did he say? >> well, he again denied the algations against him he's consistently done since his arrest. he also... he talked about a number of matters. i think largely he was... he reviewed the sort of the good works he had done through the

second mile charity and in an attempt to give the judge some idea of the positive side of his life outside these criminal allegations. he also spoke about his family members that stuck with him. he discussed his life in prison. and he vowed to continue fighting. >> woodruff: did he say anything about the victims? >> well, he... not a lot. i mean, he said that he hoped that this case would somehow generate some positive publicity that would prevent other children from being victimizedded in the future. >> woodruff: and what about the victims? we know that out of the ten, three of them spoke. what was their demeanor and what did they say? >> well, one had a very calm demeanor. the other two seemed nervous, but all three of them talked about the affect that this case had had on them personally, mentioned post traumatic stress disorder, depression. one of them spoke in religious

terms and urged sandusky to accept responsibility for what he had done as a, you know, as something that was inevitable, that was required i guess as a matter of his belief. >> woodruff: was there emotion in the statements? >> well, yeah. i mean, sandusky toward the end of his statement, his voice cracked somewhat. and the young men also seemed very emotional. i would say that the atmosphere in the courtroom was somber as i think would be befitting this sort of proceeding. >> woodruff: and what about the judge? when it came time for him to hand down the sentence, what did he say to sandusky? >> well, he spent a lot of time discussing, yeah, the technical aspects of the sentence which was, yeah, 30 to 60 years. but he also made reference to a recorded statement that

sandusky... that was released yesterday on a local radio station. the judge dismissed that as an unbelievable conspiracy theory. and he talked about the damage that this case has done to the... to individuals, the loss of innocence and to a loss of community. and that those factored into his thinking in crafting the sentence that he imposed. >> woodruff: and as he was saying this, what was sandusky doing? >> sandusky during... i mean, he was watching whoever was speaking. when the prosecutor was talking, he was sort of... i mean, i guess he was... it would be fairly described as a smirk. but when the young men were speaking, he was more of a smile. i mean, he was engaged but at one point when his own lawyer was talking he was chewing his fingernails. but besides that, i wouldn't say that he was, you know, giving a lot of emotion. there wasn't a lot to read there in terms of body language. >> woodruff: i read that the judge said that, as he was

crafting the sentence, he kept in mind one of the victims in the shower who was seen by a janitor. do we know any more about that? >> yeah. that victim 8 as he's known, that's a young man who has never been identified. sandusky was convicted of attacking him in the shower in an incident that was witnessed by a janitor. now, the janitor was not able to testify because he i guess had, you know, just medical issues. and so the that convicted sandusky came from the janitor's supervisor. that raises some hearsay legal issues that could potentially be a matter for appellate review. >> woodruff: and the judge... go ahead. >> and the judge said that he was... the way he set up the sentence, some were consecutive, some were concurrent. those sentences were all concurrent. if the charges related to victim 9 are thrown out or go away, it won't result in any effectively

lower sentence for sandusky. >> woodruff: i also read that the judge told sandusky he expects him to die in prison. but, mark, finally, what's the reaction there in the community and around penn state? >> well, you know, i think in central pennsylvania in general it's the heart of penn state country. i think there is a lot of concern about the effect that this case has had on penn state as an institution. both in terms of the, you know, the football team but also, you know, reputational, that this is something that has sort of caused repercussions for people who had nothing to do with the case or the university's handling of it. i think there is some feeling that there's been a unjust tarring of the overall university, you know, in wake of these charges because of the scandal. >> woodruff: what about towards sandusky himself? >> well, you know, i can't really say.

i have a sense for, you know, a community thought about that. sandusky has his supporters. they were inhe courtroom today. but, you know, certainly there's not a, you know, if there's a strong outwelling of support for sandusky or against this prosecution, there aren't a lot of signs of that. >> woodruff: with the a.p., with the associated press, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour, charges chinese companies could steal sensitive data; choices in the presidential campaign; coping with climate change; and the death of a drug lord. but first, with the other news of the day, here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: questions swirled again today about the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya. the associated press reported a state department document listed 230 security incidents in libya in the 12 months ending last july. then, last month, u.s.

ambassador chris stevens and three other americans were killed when gunmen attacked the consulate. f.b.i. teams have had only limited access to the site, but attorney general eric holder today praised the libyan government's response. it's a challenging environment in which to operate but i think we have done pretty well given the circumstances in which we find ourselves and we found ourselves able to move about and do the things that we have wanted to do because of the assistance we've gotten from the libyan government as well as from some of our other allies >> sreenivasan: a u.s. house committee holds a hearing tomorrow on the consulate attack. in pakistan, a taliban gunman shot and wounded a 14-year-old activist known for promoting girls' education. malala yousufzai was hit in the head and neck during the attack in the swat valley region. doctors said the wounds were not life-threatening. yousufzai spoke out on girls' education at a u.n. children's assembly last year. the taliban called her work "an obscenity" in a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. one out of every eight people on earth is going hungry, according to a u.n. report today. that comes to 870 million

people, but it's far below the figure of one billion announced in 2009. the u.n. food and agriculture organization blamed flawed methodology and poor data for the earlier number, and it said the number of hungry people has been declining steadily in the past two decades. athens, greece, erupted in angry protests today against the visiting chancellor of germany, angela merkel. germany is the leading contributor to the greek bailout, but at a price that's embittered many greeks. we have a report from james mates of independent television news. . >> reporter: at the airport the welcome was warm. the protocol followed to the letter. but this was no routine visit from the head of one e.u. government to another. angela merkel is hated here. widely blamedded for inflicting a depression on the greek economy with her demands for endless austerity. the scene in the center of athens could hardly be more different. 20,000 or more demonstrators packed the square outside

parliament, some determined that the television images of this visit would reflect the widespread anger. away from chancellor merckel and the german embassy riot police quickly became the target. the police have been much more restrained than you would expect. normally by now this square would be full of tear gas. there are clearly orders to try and keep a lid on this. and a few minutes later we discovered why as chancellor merckel and the greek prime minister walked from one meeting to another through deserted streets just a few hundred yards away. tear gas in the air would have made her walk-about impossible. >> this is an exceptionally difficult time for greece. it's going to require stamina and a long effort, but i'm confident that there's light at the end of the tunnel. i would wish to see greece

remain a member of the euro-zone. >> reporter: she had brought with her nothing for the greeks but encouraging words. what she'll take away are images that show what damage this euro-crisis is doing with dreams of european unity. scas tick a flags being burnt, men dressed as nazi officers being driven through central athens. rather than building a new europe, this is bringing back terrible memories of the old. >> sreenivasan: france also saw large, nationwide protests today, the first since socialist president francois hollande took office. french unemployment is at its highest since 1999. wall street gave ground today on new fears that the global economy is weakening. the international monetary fund reported overnight that the downturn is spreading. the dow jones industrial average lost 110 points to close at 13,473. the nasdaq fell 47 points to close at 3065. an american scientist will share this year's nobel prize in physics for ground-breaking work in observing particles at the quantum level.

american david wineland works at the national institute of standards and technology and the university of colorado in boulder. he was honored along with a french scientist, serge haroche of paris. their separate research has led to the creation of extremely precise clocks. it's also paved the way to build new super-fast computers. for the first time in history, fewer than half of all americans consider themselves to be protestant. that's according to a new pew study on religion in the u.s. protestants historically made up a majority of the country. now, they account for 48% of the population. and one-fifth of adults in the survey had no religious affiliation. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to gwen. >> ifill: a new congressional report takes aim at two chinese telecommunications giants. jeffrey brown reports. these are the second and fifth largest makers of wireless telecommunication gear in the world. they're looking to expand their limited sales in the u.s.

but in a 52-page report, the house intelligence committee warned monday against doing business with the chinese companies, citing concerns over corporate speen, cyber war risks and more. committee chair mike rogers. >> the investigation concluded that the risks associated with these companies providing equipment and services to u.s. critical infrastructure undermines the core u.s. national security interests. as a majority of u.s. networks are run by private companies, we recommend that private network providers find other vendors. government systems and contractors should also exclude these companies' products as well. >> brown: specifically the report pointed to possible ties between the companies and the chinese government and military. and it concluded based on available classified and unclassified information heuwei and z.t.e. cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence. the conclusions were quickly

rejected in beijing. the chinese foreign ministry insisted the two firms are stribtly above board. >> china's telecommunications companies follow the market regulations to operate in the international market. their investments in the u.s. go to show the mutually beneficial relations. we hope the u.s. congress can abandon prejudice and do more to benefit the interest of the two countries not the opposite. >> brown: today china's state news agency quoted the commerce minister as saying the report used national security as an excuse of blocking chinese companies from fair competition in the u.s. market. the issue hassles entered the presidential race. an obama campaign ad accused romney of profiting from a bane capital deal that helped huiwei acquire a company. the romney campaign fired back saying the charge was false and ludicrous. the congressional report has no legal weight but it could discourage u.s. tell come firms from major deals with the chinese. the congressional report was a

bipartisan effort. the congressional report was a bipartisan effort, and we hear first on this issue from the ranking member of the house intelligence committee, maryland congressman dutch ruppersberger. congressman, want to fill in some of the details here. did your investigation find specific evidence that these companies have engaged in spying or speen or is it more that they might do something in the future? >> our investigation which started a year ago, a bipartisan investigation, we looked at the connection between these two major companies and we also looked at their connection to the chinese government. i personally met with the chairman of huiwei in hong kong and questioned him and also representatives from z.t.e. we asked them hard questions. they refused to give us specific answers. one of the responses to our question and to our recommendation for them to give us these answers was that we cannot give you these answers pursuant to our chinese law at this time. our concern really was a national security concern but

it's also a concern about competition. you know, we do not want a chinese government to have the ability to spy on americans who might be huway or z.t.e. customers. we do not want them to be able to spy on our businesses. let me just say this. last year the united states, pursuant to cyber command, the united states lost over 300 billion dollars of trade secrets. that's $300 billion of trade secrets as a result of cyber attacks. >> brown: but excuse me, but is there... is it the lack of evidence? i mean the lack of them being clear with you or is there evidence that they might do something? >> we also have evidence. we have evidence that the chinese government have been doing it. as far as huiwei is concerned we have gotten a lot of data and information about huiwei but most of our concern is the relationship between their government. >> brown: you heard that the company pushed back pretty hard after this report came out.

they accuse... they said little more than an exercise in china-bashing. >> the first thing, we're not masquerading at all national security to do any chinese bashing. that's not what we do as americans. in my message basically and my message to the chairman of huiwei was if you want to do business in the united states the first thing you do is disclose that we need including your financial information. we want to make sure that you do not have a connection or the chinese government does not have control over what you can do with our customers in the united states. you know, chinese government is a communist government. if the chinese government demands their citizens do something, they have to do it. we're very much concerned about that. we're also concerned too from a competition point of view that the chinese government is subsidizing these two companies. when huiwei can come and grow not only in the united states but throughout the world because their prices are so much cheaper, we're concerned about

subsidy. that's not a clear playing field. my... go ahead. >> brown: i was going to ask you, you're planning to take this. you're taking this to the justice department for further action? >> what we do in intelligence is that we collect information and and a pliez the information. if we find any criminal act whatsoever, we turn it over to the justice department. that's a classified part of our report. there's a lot that we cannot say because we're the intelligence community. let me say this too. we want to make sure that we notify our citizens and our businesses in this country about a possible threat before the threat actually occurs. we don't want to react after the fact like 9/11, like other issues. this cyber threat is real. not only with china but with terrorists and other individuals who can attack our country. that's why, by the way, our committee also has a cyber bill that passed that allows our intelligence community to give information about this negative and these attacks coming into our country to our providers like at&t and verizon and quest and comcast and those providers

who we really we're their customers, the people in the united states. >> brown: all right. congressman dutch ruppersberger, thanks so much. >> got it. brown: now a response from huiwei. william plummer is the company's vice president for external affairs. welcome. >> thank you. brown: you heard the congressman. let me ask you about this question of espionage and ties to the government. is your company tied to the government and has it practiced spying? >> no and no. and the committee has not provided any information to suggest otherwise. when this investigation was launched last november, huiwei met with the committee staff in december in washington. we hosted committee staff in china in february for a day-long visit. we hosted members and staff in hong kong with our ceo in may. we received a list of questions from the committee via the wall

street journal in june and we responded in july. we made a witness available for the hearing in september and responded to subsequent questions after that. >> brown: let me walk through that because the report says specifically that the company didn't answer questions about the role of the communist party in the company. it didn't provide data or information on previous board of directors that might have past ties. so it is saying -- and you just heard the congressman say again -- that they don't feel like they have enough information to know whether your company might be a risk. >> it's a fair point. in fact, actually we did give them information in terms of what the communist party committee does within the organization, which is the same that it does in k.f.c. china or wal-mart china or cisco china. it's required by chinese law to allow for the exist ens of such an entity. it has no interaction with the business whatsoever. this company... two key points. we're a $32 billion company

doing business across 150 different markets, 70% of our business is outside of china. our financing is not from the government. our financing is from 33 different regional and commercial banks across the globe, 23 of which are outside of china. we have over 500 operator customers globally including the national carriers in virtually every o.e.c.d. country. the quality and the integrity and the security of our solutions are world proven. those facts were willfully ignored by the committee, but more disturbing whether you're huiwei or erickson or nokia or cisco that's building this gear you're all global companies. you're all building globally. you're all developing, coding, and building in china. there are cyber vulnerabilities. but their borderless.

>> brown: what do you think is going on? you see this one or two chinese companies being picked out? >> in november when this investigation was launched, a press release was issued. if the committee's intent had been to better secure our networks, then the press release would not have focused on the two companies with headquarters in china but rather the six companies that are competing for this business globally that all have operations in china and elsewhere. on that point which was willfully ignored, huiwei as a global leader -- $32 billion in sales last year -- is not just an innovator but an integrater. to fuel our supply chain last year, we spent $6.6 billion procuring goods from u.s.-based companies. that's one third of the component to go into our solutions. those are tens of thousands of american jobs and quality and secure american technology that

is going into our solutions. >> brown: just briefly because we have... you're planning to fight this. is that the argument you're going to make pub likely to the american public, publicly to the government, you're planning to fight this? >> the report that was issued earlier this week was a book-long version of the press release that was announced last november. from huiwei's perspective it's an unfortunate political distraction. if one government has issues with another government, take them up via diplomatic channels. don't hold hostage an independent employee-owned company that is world respected and a leader in its field. >> brown: all right. william plummer of huiwei, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> ifill: president obama and mitt romney focused on key battleground states today, each hoping to recover or to rebound. with four weeks to election day,

the presidential campaign has kicked into high gear after last week's debate dramatically shifted momentum. as in almost every poll, governor romney is now statistically tied with or leading president obama. for mitt romney the challenge is to keep the wind at his back. at a rain-soaked rally in virginia last night, he focused his renewd optimism. >> people wonder why it is i'm so confident we're going to win. i'm confident because i see you here on a day like this. this is unbelievable. thank you so much. ( cheers and applause ) >> ifill: and in iowa today, the governor departed from his usual stump speech to tell a more personal story of an encounter at a christmas party a few years ago. >> one of them was a guy actually from my home state of massachusetts. relatively young guy compared to me. he was a former navy seal. he was living in san diego. he learned about him. he talked about his life. he told me that he keeps going back in the middle east. he cares very deeply about the people there. he served in the military there.

went back from time to time to offer security services and so forth to people there. you can imagine how i felt when i found out that he was one of the two former navy seals killed in benghazi on september 11. >> ifill: following his battle ground map romney traveled to must-win ohio. that's where president obama was today. campaigning at ohio state university on the last day buckeyes can register to vote. president obama has seen his previous lead in the polls almost evaporate and is on the offense after a lack luster debate performance last week. he admitted as much at a fund-raiser last night in san francisco. >> after the debate, i had a bunch of folks come to me. don't be so polite. don't be so nice. ( cheers and applause ) but i want everybody to understand something. what was being presented wasn't leadership. that's salesmanship. governor romney's plan is to let

wall street run wild again but he's going to bring the hammer down on sesame street. >> ifill: the obama campaign thought to exploit the sesame street reference today with a new television ad >> mitt romney knows it's not wall street you have to worry about. it's sesame street. >> i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs >> mitt romney taking on our enemies no matter where they nest >> ifill: sesame street workshop asked the obama campaign to pull the ad down. as paul ryan and joe biden prepare to meet in their debate later this week, the presidential candidates will continue to narrow their focus with a romney swing through ohio and a presidential visit to florida. >> woodruff: tonight's edition of front line on pbs searches past the campaign trail for a fuller understanding of the two men competing for the presidency.

one part of the two-hour documentary focuses on losing campaigns that helped shape each man: mitt romney's 1994 bid for the massachusetts senate seat held by ted kennedy, and barack obama's attempt to unseat a popular illinois congressman, former black panther bobby rush in 2000. this excerpt begins with an ad from the kennedy team that an angry romney attacked when the two men met for a debate. >> mitt romney says he helped create 10,000 jobs. the formers workers in indiana say something else >> i would like to say to the people of massachusetts if you think it can't happen to you, think again because we thought it wouldn't happen here either >> i want to know why you spent millions of dollars showing advertisements of strikers in a company i had nothing to do with. >> kennedy, the veteran, ignored romney's charge >> mr. romney, let's put the ads aside and talk about health care. let's talk about education. let's talk about training. let's talk about new jobs. let's talk about infrastructure. let's talk about our different vision for massachusetts. that's what the people of

massachusetts want to talk about. that's what ihink they ought to hear about. >> i think about ten or 15 minutes in, romney began to realize this was not the easy exercise he thought it was going to be. >> reporter: then romney faulterred. the issue was health care. >> i have a plan. i have a position paper on health care. i'm happy to show it to you, senator any lime you would like. >> mr. romney, it isn't a question of showing me your paper. it's a question of showing all of the people in here that are watching this program the paper. they ought to have an opportunity to know. what is the cost of your program? >> i don't have a cost of my program >> you don't have a cost i'm sorry. i don't have... >> what will be the impact of that on the budget >> i to not know the specific number. senator kennedy, i think it's a wonderful idea to take it through piece by piece and... >> that's what you have to do with legislation. that's exactly what you have to do with legislation.

>> reporter: we all sort of understood what had happened that night. the debate was watched by over three million people. as many people as watched a super bowl in massachusetts. >> romney had these expectations that he was going to win up to here and suddenly kennedy is up to here, romney is here. the race is over. >> after you lose to ted kennedy, everything else comes up short. you've learned from that. you've been through the storm. you've servedded time on the front lines. history is a great teacher. he may have lost but he acquired some knowledge from that defeat. >> mitt doesn't like to lose. it was very painful for him. i believe probably the first public failure he had ever experienced. i think at a deep level, you know, that was painful experience for him.

>> reporter: even after having lived here for years, obama was vulnerable to a charge bubby rush would surely make. he didn't really know these streets. and he's not really an african-american. >> bobby rush called him an educated fool again trying to sort of cast obama as this overeducated, half white guy from hawaii with this multicultural background. he was not one of us >> you can have more degrees than a thermometer but if you ain't got some power, if you ain't got some seniority, if you ain't got what it takes... >> reporter: it's always been a sub text of the opposition to him from other black politicians. how dedicated is he to the black struggle? >> despite all our differences, we can live together as one people. >> there's a long article about the race in the chicago reader, the local alternative paper in chicago where one of obama's opponents, he says obama is viewed as the white man in black

face in our community. >> it got bad. it was real bad. a number of black nationalists in the african-american community, you know, made all sorts of allegations about barack being a tool of, you know, hyde park and the university of chicago which are both code words for both white and jews. >> reporter: bobby rush's strategy worked. on election day the voters embraced the incumbent. obama knew what was going to happen. >> in the end voters decided to stick with bobby rush. you know, by a huge, huge, huge margin. it was a very bruising loss for him. >> reporter: obama lost by 30 points. >> it was the first time in his life where people didn't just really accept him immediately, where things didn't really go perfectly for him. >> reporter: the loss seem like it might be the end of obama's political career. >> people who saw him afterward say he was as low as they've ever seen him.

one person who was close to him said he got the sense that senator obama really wondered if he would be able to continue in politics >> reporter: and it raised real problems with his wife michelle >> the bobby rush race was the nadir of the obama marriage. her feeling was, why are you doing this? this is the moment when they want two totally different things. you know, barack obama wants political success. and his wife wants a normal life. i asked the president and first lady how long it had taken them to recover from that period? they said two to three years. so this is a serious toll on their relationship. >> woodruff: the choice: 2012 >> woodruff: "the choice 2012"

airs on most pbs stations tonight. >> ifill: next, our series on "coping with climate change" looks at how the city of chicago is dealing with ever warmer temperatures, by trying to cool things down with changes to its landscape. we turn again to hari sreenivasan, who traveled there recently. >> that's your grandfather. >> sreenivasan: 15-year-old janell coleman only knows her grandfather through the photographs that her grandma, luxora coleman, shares with her. >> what i could remember about 1995 is that my husband passed in his apartment. he was on the couch, and sitting up, and his room was extremely hot when i arrived there. and only thing that was going was a ceiling fan. >> sreenivasan: that july in chicago, the heat index reached 120 degrees for four straight days.

thousands of residents lost power, roads buckled, and more than 700 people, mostly the elderly and ill, died due to heat-related causes. since then the city has been working to prevent such a tragedy from occurring again by improving heat emergency warnings and opening summer cooling centers. but how can a city control the heat? cities are usually hotter than their surrounding rural areas, because all the buildings and pavement absorb the sun's heat during the day and keep giving off heat into the night. it's called the urban heat island effect. here's a map of chicago from the city's department of environment. these red built-up pockets are where the temperature is hotter throughout the city. or look at this satellite view of phoenix's night temperatures, where yellow areas are the hottest. the difference between phoenix and a neighboring rural town is about 11 degrees. and making all that worse is the fact that scientists have seen a rise in surface temperature in the last century worldwide. by looking at data from urban and rural areas, land and sea,

they've been able to account for local impacts including weather stations near heat retaining structures. that is, they know that chicago is hotter-- and not just because of all those buildings. thomas peterson is a climatologist with the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. >> we look at temperatures at rural stations and we look at temperatures at urban stations. we see if they are showing the same thing in the long-term trend-- variability and change-- and they are showing the same thing in our record, both in the u.s. record and in the global record. once we account for the different factors that impact temperature at a particular location, we see that the temperature in urban sites is warming at about the same rate as the temperature in rural sites. >> sreenivasan: joseph fernando of university of notre dame has been studying the urban climate in both chicago and phoenix. he has seen the impacts of the heat island effect and says it's gotten more intense because of the overall global temperature rise. >> so that means cities usually

have higher temperatures compared to rural, not only due to urban heat island, but also the climatic change. so climate change basically exacerbates the effects at night. >> sreenivasan: fernando says that as earth's temperature increases, a city's developed areas will retain even more nighttime heat than other areas. how significant is that difference between rural and urban in say, a city like chicago? >> well, now, here it's about five degrees. in 1970, it's about two and a half degrees. so it has doubled up over 40 years. >> sreenivasan: this past summer, chicago once again saw record-breaking high temperatures. according to a climate assessment commissioned by the city, chicago's annual average temperature has warmed by more than two degrees fahrenheit since 1945. unless something changes this trend line, by the end of the century a chicago summer could feel like an atlanta, georgia, summer, and there could be more frequent, longer, and more intense heat waves like that of 1995.

there also could be more rain, since higher temperatures means less precipitation falls as snow. >> the data there really set the stage for us to think about what solutions could be in place. the data suggested things like we will see more high-heat days, more heat events, more rain, more storm events, in the context of an overall change and some warming. >> sreenivasan: karen weigert is the chief sustainability officer for the city heading up chicago's ambitious mission to cool the city down. >> we're in the midst of, right now, a $7 billion multi-year program on building a new chicago. so we're redoing and renovating infrastructure throughout the city. >> sreenivasan: they're changing everything from head to toe-- or, in a city's case, from roof to street. one of chicago's most beautiful gardens is one very few people get to see, a 23,000-square-foot green roof that sits on top of city hall. the difference a green roof

makes is measurable. that side of city hall's roof used to be traditional black, like most roofs. on a hot day, when it was 90 degrees out, they came out and measured the surface temperature. it was 169 degrees, versus this side of city hall, where they ve a green roof, and the surface temperature was 90 degrees. michael berkshire administers green roof projects for the city. >> rooftops are one of the last kind of frontiers that you can really look at, and it's a significant amount of space. >> sreenivasan: berkshire says the plants on green roofs soak up heat, and keep both the buildings underneath and the air above them cooler. that, in turn, reduces the cost of air conditioning.

this roof saves city hall about $3,600 a year. chicago has 359 green roofs covering almost five and a half million square feet. that's more than any other city in north america. millenium park is the largest green roof in the world at 25 acres, covering parking garages, a railway, and an opera house. >> what's interesting about a green roof is that it provides the benefits that can help mitigate in terms of, you know, keeping the temperatures lower. but then in terms of the adaptation, we're going to see more rainfall and heavier rainfall events. o the more rainfall you can absorb on-site, the less were going to overburden that combined storm sewer system. so a green roof not only helps reduce the heat, it also cuts back on storm water runoff. >> sreenivasan: to encourage more of them, chicago has mandated that all new buildings that require any public funds must be l.e.e.d.-certified, or designed with energy efficiency in mind. and any project that includes a green roof in its application gets a faster permitting process. faster permits mean faster move- ins and more revenue.

that, combined with energy savings, is the kind of green that incentivizes developers like jason westrope. >> if every rooftop in chicago was covered with green roof, the city could save $100 million in energy every year, so there is a direct benefit between the amount of heat energy gained by a building that's not covered, or protected, by a green roof, and that does translate into cooling costs downstairs. >> sreenivasan: downstairs is 900 michigan avenue, a luxury retail, office, and condo building. the green roof was installed because of the city's incentives, but they expanded it when they realized it was attracting tenants. icago is also taking the fight to the streets. to see one of chicago's most ambitious projects, we met janet attarian in a downtown alley. she is a project director for the city's department of transportation. >> what's special about this alley is that it has permeable pavement. and what that means is that the pavement is designed to allow rainwater to pass through the

pavement and be able to access the earth underneath so that it can infiltrate into the soils as it would naturally do if we were in a farm field or a park. an alley that has water that's basically being stored underneath it, as that evaporates, it helps keep the air around it cool. traditional alleys absorb heat, and cast away potentially cooling rain water. when you realize there are 1,900 miles of alleyways in chicago-- more than any city in the country-- you start to see the potential of green alleys. >> sreenivasan: attarian says that the goal is to make complete street systems, from bike lanes to widened sidewalks for increased pedestrian traffic to tree and plant landscaping that provide shade. attarian also took us to an intersection in south chicago, a main thoroughfare for trucks coming from around the midwest and one of the prototype examples of chicago's newly engineered streetscapes. the light bounces off, and also the heat bounces off, if you will, right? it doesn't absorb the heat.

it's like when you put on a black t-shirt on a hot day versus a white t-shirt. >> sreenivasan: so, literally, between these two lanes, if you put thermometers down for an hour each, they would have a different temperature. >> they should have a different temperature. we actually, at the intersection, have a laser that's pointed at it so we can measure temperature right at the surface. >> sreenivasan: this streetscape is a test bed in many ways. the composition of some lanes is more porous to take soak up rain. other lanes are coated with a micro-thin concrete to reflect more light and keep the street from absorbing so much heat, and the curbs are catch basins so excess runoff feeds sidewalk gardens instead of ending up in the drain. >> sreenivasan: moving forward, the city is looking to further understand where the city's hot spots are. thermal radar and mapping will allow them to pinpoint where heat is having the biggest impact. while all of these efforts may be expensive, karen weigert says it would be more costly not to act. >> it really comes down to what do we do today to make sure we're pointed in that right direction. so there's an economic value

case out there, and there's also just huge benefits to bring to chicagoans right now. >> sreenivasan: chicago's efforts are being studied by cities around the country. they're early experiments yet, and it will be years until all the roofs are green, or the streets are paved with permeable and reflective materials. till then... >> this is the fan i use in my bedroom. >> sreenivasan: ...residents do what they can to stay cool. >> ifill: you can see a slideshow of some of chicago's most impressive green roofs, plus find all of our "coping with climate change" reports on our web site. >> woodruff: finally tonight, the mexican government says it has taken out a major target in its war on drug cartels. ray suarez has our story. warning, some viewers may find images in his report disturbing. >> suarez: it was front-page news in mexico city today. mexican marines had killed the leader of the glet a's drug

cartel. heriberto lazcano in a shootout sunday. the navy announced fingerprints confirmed the identity. then a bizarre twist. gunman stole the body from a funeral home before forensic testing could be completedded. >> the owner of garcia funeral services said that maskedded men subdued the employees, took the body from a funeral home in a hearse and forced the driver to drive the vehicle >> suarez: a death photo of the man was released. still the state attorney general, overseeing the operation, said authorities are confident they got the right man. >> an analysis was done comparing the body and its characteristics with the still pictures on file. this comparison resulted in a positive match. >> suarez: lazcano was one of mexico's most feared drug lords, also known as the executioner. he transformed the zetas from

enforcers for the gulf cartel into a powerful rival organization. since then the zetas have been blamed for some of the bloodiest atrocities in mexico's six-year war on drugs but in recent months authorities have arrested a string of high-profile zeta members. for more on this i'm joined by reuters mexico city bureau chief simon gardner. simon, how high up the hierarchy chain is heriberto lazcano >> right up at the top. he is the leader of the glet as. he has been locked in a bitter battle with the second, if you like, in command of the zetas. much of the bloodshed we've been seeing in mexico in recent months have been due to that feud >> suarez: since the president of mexico in effect declared war on the drug cartels have they ever caught as big a fish as this one? >> he's the biggest fish they've caught so far. i mean this is a coups for

called reason. calderon's drug strategy which was to go after the heads of the different drug cartels was criticized by some for having created fragmentation and a deep deepening of violence. yet he is to a certain extent been vindicated today. he said so himself on television. this afternoon. so, you know, for calderon's strategy, which actually hurt his party in recent presidential election and helped boost his opponent or the opponent of his party, he is now, you know, reaping the benefits of this. the fall of lazcano is definitely the most important kill in this... in calderon's drug war to date. >> suarez: will american authorities interested in the capture or killing of lazcano? >> they are very interested. they're still waiting, according to the state department, for absolute confirmation. you can never be 100% sure here.

there's also the issue that the body was stolen. shortly, you know, just a few hours after he was killed. in rather strange circumstances. so there's kind of this veil of mystery which is sort shrouding the whole incident to a certain extent. judging by the photographs and by experts seem to feel that the features of the man killed do fit with lazcano. there are other sort of details such as the fact that, you know, he was dits his body was stolen in the middle of the night with apparently no resistance. he was also found with pretty heavy weapons including r.p.g. and a grenade-launcher. so there are certain elements here which would support the idea that it was in fact him. >> suarez: what do the mexican authorities who say they captured him in a gun fight say happened? how did they track him down? >> well, they've been fairly mute about how they actually got hold of him. but the theory is that there may have been some informant

involvement. at the end of the day he was found or there was a tip-off, a phone tip-off, anonymous one about two people who looked sus spushous in a vehicle in the area where there was the gun fight. so that could have been due to an informant. it could have been a local resident. at the end of the day he was on his own with one other suspected zeta. and the fact that he was not protected, considering he's the head of a drug cartel, would suggest that perhaps there was some, you know, involvement of informers or possibly of other zetas, given there is all this in-fighting, who would like to have seen the back of him >> suarez: from time to time there have been captures of fairly high-ranking narco-traffickers. is this a case where the people are simply replaced or might this injure the operations of one of the most prominent cartels? >> there could be other people waiting in the wings to replace

him. however, given that the zetas essentially are divided into two factions with lazcano against another drug lord. it could be either that the other cells of the zetas because they operate in cells, will rally behind the other man or there could be a certain amount of bloodletting and they could end up allying themselves with some of the other cartels here in mexico. it could lead to deepening of violence. but it could also help solidify, if you like, the man's hold over the zetas >> suarez: calderon is still president of mexico for a few more months. has his successor made clear his intentions about whether he intends to continue to prosecute the war on drugs? >> well, president-elect has said that his focus is going to be on tackling organized crime. going after extortionists and kidnappers, and that kind of thing. in a way distancing himself a

little bit from calderon's tack which has been to go after the actual drug bosses themselves. around two-thirds of 37 drug lords named by calderon have now been either killed or captured. and so he's made real in-roads into tackling these bosses but at the same time, like the zetas, there's been a certain amount of fragmentation within the cartels. that leads to battles for supremacy and then, you know, having further atrocities and killings. >> suarez: simon gardner in mexico city, thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> ifill: again, the other major developments of the day, former penn state assistant football coach jerry sandusky was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for sexual abuse of young boys. president obama and mitt romney criss-crossed ohio, as more polls showed romney cutting into the president's lead, in the

wake of last week's debate. and thousands of greeks staged angry protests against the visiting chancellor of germany, over her push for austerity policies. we have job search tips online. hari sreenivasan has the details. >> sreenivasan: headhunter nick corcodilos offers this advice. starting a business is actually a great way to network and land a dream job. that's on our making sense page. and on art beat, we have a new feature, the tuesday cut line. give us your best caption on the photo posted for a chance to win a newshour mug. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. judy? >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we'll look at the battle for suburban voters in colorado. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you on-line, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> they can be enlightening or

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